Monday, March 30, 2015

Growing in Faith vs Dramatic Gestures

This is a follow-up from Heather's twoposts about retirement savings: should we prudently save for our retirement or generously give to today's needs and trust God to look after us down the road.

Giving away our retirement savings would be a bold statement, but requires little faith for the present day. How can it grow on experiences of God's provision when we have arranged not to need His help until we turn 65?

I was struck by this question a few weeks back, as we yet again tossed around our questions.

I can't remember if it was before or after the 150th anniversary celebrations for my parents' mission organisation, whose founder's belief that "God's work... will not lack God's supply" was affirmed by stories of those still present as well as from history books. Those stories were of people daring to act as God led them, facing pressing need, and being encouraged by timely provision of those needs.

So I think that we'll keep putting the savings aside for now, and fund our giving from today's grocery money. Then we can see God at work today, and see where things go. We won't need to reach for the piggy bank unless there's something pretty exciting afoot, at which point our questions would look very different.